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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22391980">when you came in, the air went out</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/andabatae/pseuds/andabatae'>andabatae</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Western, American Frontier, Crimes &amp; Criminals, Enemies to Lovers, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Heist, Knotting, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Scenting, Shapeshifting, Sharpshooter Rey, Smut, Treasure Hunt, Vaginal Sex, Were-Creatures, Werecoyotes, Werewolves, Western, Wild West, Wild West A/B/O werewolf/werecoyote AU, i said what i said, rival gangs, shootout</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 08:17:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>15,070</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22391980</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/andabatae/pseuds/andabatae</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>To get the map to the mythical treasure of La Montaña de Oro, Rey and her gang of werecoyotes will have to pull off their biggest heist yet - breaking in to a den of formidable werewolves led by Kylo Ren.</p><p>It's the night before the full moon, which means Rey is about to go into heat...</p><p>And Kylo Ren's room smells really, really good.</p><p>---</p><p> </p><p>  <b>A Wild West A/B/O werewolf/werecoyote AU</b></p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kaydel Ko Connix/Poe Dameron/Finn/Rose Tico, Kylo Ren/Rey, Poe Dameron/Finn, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>77</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>617</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Solo Love Letters</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. don't drink the water if it's not from my stream</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/commandercrouton/gifts">commandercrouton</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I combined two prompts into one for this fic: Western AU and rival werewolf packs. Hope you enjoy, commandercrouton!</p><p>Thanks to <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaybohls/pseuds/kaybohls">kaybohls</a> for the gorgeous moodboard!</p>
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</div><p> </p><p>
  <em>Takodana, American frontier, 1881 </em>
</p><p>Rey leans against the clapboard wall of the saloon, arms crossed and cowboy hat tipped down low. With her hair hidden beneath her hat, she can pass for a teenage boy, which means most people ignore her outright. In a town like Takodana, it doesn’t pay to notice too much about the people around you, but independent women still garner too much unwelcome attention.</p><p>This sloppily-constructed settlement seems like it’s in the middle of nowhere, nestled as it is in a barren plain between two mountain ranges, but it sits at the intersection of two dirt tracks that lead to much more important places. All kinds of unsavory types pass through here.</p><p>Rey is one of those unsavory types. She’s been here for a week, scoping out the bank with her gang.</p><p>Sometimes the middle of nowhere can be a very enticing place.</p><p>The glands at her wrists and on either side of her throat throb, and she rolls her neck to ease the tension. It’s risky, doing a job this close to the full moon, but that’s exactly why they’re doing it. The pack of werewolves that runs this town will be out securing the boundaries of their territory, leaving their den unguarded for a few precious hours.</p><p>Plenty of time for a clever coyote to sneak in and out.</p><p>A high-pitched yip pierces the air—Finn’s signal that the property is clear. Rey pushes off the wall and saunters towards the two-story house on the next block, spurs ringing as her boots strike the dirt. Her guns are comfortable weights in the holsters at her hips, and her fingers itch to caress the mother of pearl grips, but that’s a quick way to get in an unintended shootout.</p><p>Rey would win that shootout—the infamous White Lightning wins every shootout—but she’d rather save the killing for someone who deserves it.</p><p>The werewolves’ den is nicer than the other buildings in this town, made of sturdy logs rather than thin planking. A holdover from olden days, she supposes, when werewolves lived in colder climes, before the promise of land and opportunity drew them out West like everyone else. It still gets mighty cold here, though, and Rey envies them their comfort and stability. She’s been living out of a bag for as long as she can remember, sleeping in tents and alleyways, only occasionally sparing the coin for proper lodging.</p><p>She eyes the front porch. The large front door is painted green, and there’s an honest-to-God brass knocker in the shape of a wolf head.</p><p>“Ain’t exactly subtle, is it?” Poe says as he joins her, matching his long strides to hers.</p><p>Rey grins up at him. She likes Poe a great deal—he’s a decade older than her and a crack shot, and his trick riding is the best she’s ever seen. With his red bandana and rakishly tilted hat, he looks like the dime novel cowboy of every girl’s dreams.</p><p>Unfortunately, he just doesn’t smell good to Rey, despite being an Alpha. Werecoyotes are rare, traveling in small packs throughout the West and disinclined to put down roots, so it’s extra disappointing to be faced with such a fine specimen of the Alpha persuasion yet find his scent lacking.</p><p>“You think the townspeople know?” she asks. The existence of werefolk isn’t common knowledge outside the community, but every once in a while a town supports a local pack in exchange for protection.</p><p>He shrugs. “They know they got a wolf problem,” he says as they head down the side of the building, skipping the gaudy front door. “I heard ‘em bitching in the tavern about cattle gone missing.”</p><p>Rey hums, mouth watering at the thought of fresh meat. She’ll get that tonight, although considering her size when shifted, it’ll more likely be an unlucky chicken. “Hitting the tavern before a job, Poe?”</p><p>He chuckles. “You know I’m good, doll. These hands never shake.”</p><p>She rolls her eyes. “Ain’t your doll.” She hasn’t quite managed to get rid of her British accent, despite twelve years out West, but she’s adopted some of the slang. Lord knows how a werecoyote got born in England--maybe that was part of the reason her parents abandoned her at the docks before she was old enough to remember anything about them--but life’s been a great deal better since she saved up enough money to head to the American frontier to find her own kind.</p><p>“More’s the pity.” He winks. “You got anyone lined up for this heat?”</p><p>It would be a rude question from anyone but a packmate, but she knows Poe has her best interests at heart. The full moon triggers more than just shapeshifting—after a night of reveling in their beast forms, all weres turn human again and spend a few days in rut or heat, burning off the magic. Ever since Finn, another Omega werecoyote, joined their gang three weeks back, Rey’s had a suspicion who Poe will spend the majority of his rut with.</p><p>She shrugs. “When have I ever?” The rest of the pack comes together in one carnal tangle, but Rey prefers to burn it out on her own, taking her tent and hiking out into the wilderness where she can writhe and sob and frig herself into as many orgasms as her body can handle. It isn’t comfortable, but it’s a far sight better than letting anyone see her that vulnerable, even pack.</p><p>A back window is slid open. Rey looks around, confirming no one’s in sight, then hops over the sill. Poe follows, and they instinctively crouch low, sniffing the air for fresh wolf scent.</p><p>Rey wrinkles her nose. This wood-paneled parlor has an unpleasantly musky aroma, like dusty fur and sweat, but there’s something nice underneath. A smell like pine and mountain rivers, crisp and refreshing.</p><p>“Disgusting,” Poe declares before straightening to his full height. “But stale.”</p><p>Finn appears in the doorway ahead of them. He crosses his arms, raising his dark brows. “You didn’t trust the signal?”</p><p>Poe licks his lips, eyeing Finn with obvious hunger. The closer the full moon gets, the less subtle he acts. “I like to be thorough.”</p><p>“Oh, yeah?” Finn’s eyes trail over Poe’s form. “Good to know.”</p><p>Rose’s voice sounds from the next room. “Stop flirting and get in here. We don’t have much time.”</p><p>The diminutive Alpha is in the kitchen, rifling through drawers. Her black hair is tied back at her nape, but two long strands fall from under her cowboy hat, framing her face. A blue bandana is tied around her throat. Bandanas are helpful for more than just disguise and protection from dust--they can shield glands, making it easier for packmates to sniff out clues from the environment. Rey’s bandana is white, which Rose constantly tells her is impractical, but once you get a moniker like White Lightning, you have to live up to it, so Rey has resigned herself to the extra washing. </p><p>“Rey and Finn, take the upstairs,” Rose says. “Poe, you’re with me.”</p><p>On jobs like this, Rose is their general, and Rey’s happy to leave the planning to other folks and pull the trigger when told. “Yes, ma’am.” She turns and heads out of the kitchen into the entry hall, where a narrow staircase leads to the upper level. On the opposite side of the entry hall from the kitchen is another parlor, which Poe heads into.</p><p>Rey’s boots are loud on the wooden steps. She winces, praying they aren’t about to get surprised by a wolf who decided to return early. Once the perimeter is patrolled and traps are set, the wolves will feel the urge to come back and secure the nest for their multi-day sex marathon.</p><p>Nine doors lead off from the narrow upstairs hallway. Rey picks the first one, while Finn chooses the second. She goes through the room methodically, noting that the wolves have already started nesting. Piles of blankets fill one corner, which bears the musty yet sickly-sweet scent of an Omega wolf. Rey prays she doesn’t smell like that, but apparently some Alphas must go for it, because there are scent markers from Alpha wolves here, too.</p><p>What the werecoyotes are after today isn’t as simple as money. They’re after a map to La Montaña de Oro—the mythical mountain of gold, a peak somewhere in this mountain range where the precious metal is said to run through the earth like veins. The new packleader, Kylo Ren, supposedly stole the map off the old packleader, Snoke, before tearing his throat out. </p><p>Rey’s grateful she lives in a pack with no real hierarchy. Rose and Poe are Alphas, while Rey, Finn, and Kaydel—who’s guarding the horses—are Omegas, but they share responsibility equally and divvy up tasks based on talent.</p><p>There’s no trace of the map in this room, and Rey checks thoroughly, feeling under the bed frame and testing for hidden compartments in the writing desk. Then again, wolves are territorial, and an Alpha like Kylo Ren would likely keep the map in his own room. Rey knows Rose prefers methodical work, but she’s worried about time, so she heads back into the hallway and flings the remaining doors open one by one, looking for the nicest bedroom. The entwined scents of Alphas and Omegas filter out from each room, and Rey winces at this reminder that seemingly every were in this damned wilderness has at least one person to burn their heat off with. Every were but her, that is.</p><p>The second-to-last room is a bathroom, and then there’s just one room left. Rey opens the door, and a wall of scent billows out, so strong it nearly makes her drop to her knees. “Oh, God,” she chokes out, bracing herself against the doorframe.</p><p>It smells <em> good</em>. More than good. She sucks in air eagerly, and her head spins as the scent of pine and snowmelt and leather and chocolate fills her nostrils.</p><p>“Everything okay?” Finn asks, coming up next to her. His brow is furrowed in concern.</p><p>“Do you smell that?” Rey gasps.</p><p>He sniffs the air, then wrinkles his nose. “Smells like musty old wolf.”</p><p>Rey shakes her head. “No, it doesn’t. It smells… it smells unbelievable.” Her glands are throbbing, even the one at the back of her neck that a partner would bite to make her his. Slick builds between her thighs, threatening to soak through her underwear.</p><p>Finn’s nostrils flare. “Whoa. Rey, you smell… really worked up.”</p><p>When you live in a pack, there’s no real sense of privacy. Rey can smell Finn’s erections, too, which is part of why she suspects he and Poe are about to have a riot of a heat together. “It’s so good,” she moans.</p><p>“Oh my God. There is no way you’re getting hot for a wolf. I won’t allow it.” He brushes past her into the room and starts rummaging, and Rey wants to scream at him for getting his scent all over her Alpha’s things.</p><p><em> Her </em> Alpha? Jesus Christ, this isn’t good.</p><p>She forces herself to calm down and takes a wobbly step into the room. She’s getting a little more accustomed to the scent, and now that she’s here, she can smell the disgusting undertone of a previous Alpha beneath it. Snoke’s acrid scent, no doubt.</p><p>Oddly enough, there are no Omega smells anywhere in the room. Rey preens at the thought—Alpha is <em> mine </em>—and rubs her wrist over his dresser.</p><p>“Rey, are you—are you <em> scenting </em> his things?” Finn sounds panicked. He rushes over and grabs her wrist, yanking her away from the wood. “Do you <em> want </em>him to know the exact scent of the person who robbed him?”</p><p><em> Yes</em>, a dreamy little voice inside Rey says. <em> Want him to smell me, too</em>.</p><p>“Fuck.” Rey grinds the heels of her palms into her eyes. “It’s too close to the full moon. I’m losing it.”</p><p>“Just a few more minutes,” Finn promises. “Now come on, help me look.”</p><p>They rifle through her Alph—no, <em> Kylo Ren’s</em>—room, growing increasingly desperate as the sun inches lower in the sky. Finn checks the bed—”I don’t trust you anywhere near that mattress”—which leaves Rey to examine the dresser and desk.</p><p>The dresser is full of soft cotton shirts, bandanas, suspenders, and cotton or canvas trousers, all in shades of black. They smell <em> so good</em>, and Rey rubs her face in one of the shirts before remembering that she absolutely should not be doing that. It’s both a relief and a pain when she finds nothing and has to abandon the dresser in favor of the desk.</p><p>The desk is made of pine and contains more drawers than any single person ought to need. One is filled with ledgers of earnings and payments, inked in a strong, gorgeous hand. Rey traces her fingers over the numbers, comparing it to her own chicken scratch. There are scraps of writing, too—letters, notes, stray musings. <em> The moon is the most exquisite torment</em>, one page says, the words inscribed in gorgeous calligraphy. <em> It reminds me of what I will never have</em>.</p><p>Rey’s heart squeezes in sympathy. She feels the same way, sometimes. There’s unrestrained joy in running wild and howling at the moon, but she can never quite forget the penalty for that freedom: the burning, aching days that will follow. The moon binds Rey to her pack, but it also reminds her that she’s alone.</p><p>There are odds and ends in other drawers, including a package of bullets, which Rey pockets. No map, though. She’s about to give up when she tries the final drawer—and finds it locked. “Finn, you got your kit?” </p><p>Finn has all kinds of skills from his two years on the run since deserting the army, the most useful of which is his way around a lock. He rushes over and drops to his knees, pulling out his lockpicks from a package at his belt.</p><p>Three sharp yips comes from downstairs: <em> Time’s up</em>.</p><p>Rey barks back. <em> Need more time. </em></p><p>
  <em> Now. </em>
</p><p>There’s no mistaking the urgency in Rose’s voice. The wolves are coming back.</p><p>“Out of the way,” Rey says, nudging Finn aside as she draws her gun. There isn’t enough time for him to trick the lock into opening for them.</p><p>“What are you—Ah!” Finn yelps as Rey blasts a hole in the lock. “Jesus Christ, Rey.”</p><p>She ignores him in favor of kneeling down and tugging open the drawer, now that the lock has been obliterated. There’s every chance she’s damaged whatever’s inside, but she breathes a sigh of relief when she sees nothing but a smoking hole in the back of the desk. Inside the drawer are only a few items: a rolled-up piece of parchment and a pair of golden dice.</p><p>Three more urgent yips sound, then a gunshot. <em> Shit</em>. Rey stuffs the rolled-up parchment in her belt, then scoops up the golden dice. “Maybe we can sell them,” she says in response to Finn’s questioning look, but the truth is much more complicated.</p><p>She needs to keep a piece of Kylo Ren. Something to look at and dream of in the torturous days to come.</p><p>They sprint downstairs in time to hear a crash as the front door bursts in. A huge man with a bushy brown beard plunges into the room, and Poe swears and shoots him in the chest. The giant drops to the ground. “Out the back,” Poe shouts.</p><p>Rey and Finn hurry to obey. Rose is already there, propping the door open with her boot as she aims her rifle at something down the road. “Stables,” she orders. “I’ll hold ‘em off.”</p><p>But Rose isn’t the crack shot Rey is, and she refuses to let their general face down an angry wolf pack alone. “Get the horses and bring them out front,” Rey tells Finn and Poe as she draws both her guns. “We’ll hop on.”</p><p>Rose spares a second to glare at her. “I said—”</p><p>“I don’t care what you said,” Rey interrupts. She can see the men approaching: five huge, hulking figures bearing an array of weapons, from batons to knives to rifles. The tallest one in the middle wears all black, with a black bandana over his face and a black hat covering black hair. He’s the only one with revolvers like Rey, and those are black, too.</p><p>Eight bedrooms. Five men out back, one dead in the entry hall, leaves two unaccounted for. “Two coming from the front,” Rey says. The wolves in back are lingering just out of firing range—probably waiting for their comrades to jump the two women.</p><p>There’s an untethered horse cart across the street, and Rey sprints across the packed dirt to take cover behind it, Rose on her heels. They’re just in time, too, as a furious shout sounds from the house. There’s a loud crack, and a bullet slams into the cart.</p><p>Rey pops up and takes a shot, plugging a wolf in the gut. It’s an ugly injury, but she might survive—since Rey’s good enough to shoot to injure, rather than kill, she tries to limit the carnage she leaves behind. The next wolf is easy, too—a shot to the thigh that will likely give her a permanent limp. The women drop, and she turns her attention on the five remaining wolves.</p><p>They’re advancing quickly, splitting up to take cover on opposite sides of the street. Another bullet strikes inches from Rey’s head, and she ducks back behind the cart, shakily describing the men’s positions to Rose.</p><p>Rose nods. “I like our odds.”</p><p>Rey has to laugh at that. Only Rose would be cocky enough to like the odds of two of them taking on five furious werewolves mere hours from a moonshift. But hey, crazy gets the job done sometimes, so she pops her head up and takes out another wolf. She marks positions again… and realizes she’s lost track of the man in black.</p><p>She has a feeling she knows who’s behind the bandana, and her heart races with a mix of dread and anticipation.</p><p>Hoofbeats sound in the distance, getting louder, and Rey sighs with relief. “You go first,” she tells Rose. “I’ll lay down covering fire.” Then she’s up, standing from her position behind the cart and popping off shots from both guns as she steps into the open. The wolves hunker down as she fires. She counts bullets carefully; there won’t be time to reload.</p><p>A series of yips tells her it’s time, and thank goodness—she has one bullet left. Rey lunges towards the alleyway that will lead to the main street—and runs straight into the man in black.</p><p>The breath rushes out of her, and she falls back on her ass. He levels his gun at her, and it’s <em> him</em>, Kylo Ren, and he’s going to kill her, but his scent is filling her nostrils like a drug…</p><p>He freezes. The bandana at his mouth flutters as he inhales. Then he rips it down around his neck, revealing a plush pink mouth and a strong nose. He’s the handsomest man Rey’s clapped eyes on, especially with that scar skating over his brow to his cheek, and more slick drips out of her at the sight of him. His nostrils flare as he breathes in deeply. “You,” he says, voice cracking on the word.</p><p>A warning yip breaks the spell between them, and Rey scrambles to her feet. The other wolves are coming, and unlike Kylo, who seems as infatuated by her scent as she is by his, they won’t hesitate to shoot. She shoves her six shooters back in her holsters and launches herself at Kylo, taking him down to the dirt in a tangle of limbs. He grunts as her knee hits him in the gut, but he doesn’t move to hurt her. He just stares up at her with wide brown eyes.</p><p>Rey can’t help it. She tugs his bandana off and shoves it into her pocket, revealing his glands and releasing more of that amazing smell into the dusty air. For a moment they just stare at each other, breathing heavily.</p><p>Then Rey lowers her head and kisses him fiercely. His taste bursts on her tongue, heady and rich, and they moan in unison. Kylo’s tongue slides into her mouth as his hands drop to grip her ass, gun forgotten entirely.</p><p>Rey rolls her hips, rubbing her aching core against the hard length that’s straining his canvas trousers. It’s heaven, and she almost forgets her escape plan in favor of fucking Kylo Ren right here in the dirt.</p><p>The paper at her waist crinkles as they grind together, and Kylo stills at the noise. He lifts her off him enough to see the scroll tucked in her waistband, and the sudden fury on his face is exactly the wakeup call Rey needs. She scrambles off him and runs towards where the others are waiting at the end of the alleyway, her heart racing faster than her boots. He shouts after her, and she braces herself for a gunshot, but none comes.</p><p>She hops on her dapple gray mare, Falcon, with practiced ease, then uses her knees to guide the horse around. The gang pound out of town, leaving the wolves shouting and howling in their dust.</p><p>“Interesting strategy,” Poe comments when they’re finally far enough into the brush to slow their pell-mell pace. “Gotta say, I wouldn’t’a thought of kissing Kylo Ren to get away.”</p><p>“She says he <em> smells nice</em>,” Finn pipes up. “You should have seen her in his room. Three seconds away from humping his pillow.”</p><p>Rey’s cheeks burn hot. “Shut up,” she growls. “We got what we came for, didn’t we?”</p><p>“Did we?” Kaydel asks, eyes bright as she looks at the scroll at Rey’s waist. “It’s the map for sure?”</p><p>Rey doesn’t know what else it would be. She unrolls it, grinning when she sees the inked lines of a mountain range and a red X labeled La Montaña de Oro. “It sure is.”</p><p>“We’re heading out first thing after rut and heat,” Rose announces.</p><p>The sun is close to setting, and a familiar tingle starts in Rey’s blood. In an hour, she’ll strip off her clothes and shift into her coyote form, then spend the night celebrating and running free with her pack. Then comes the agony of heat, all alone in that cave she scouted out a week past. This time, though, she has more than she’s ever had before. She has Kylo Ren’s golden dice, his black bandana, and the memory of his mouth on hers.</p><p>She just prays it’ll be enough to get her through.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. the old devils are at it again (who knows what they'll do?)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The usual dubcon warning for A/B/O applies. Everything in this fic will be consensual, but the biological imperative of ruts/heats makes it hard for people to say no. If that's not your thing, don't read!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
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</div><p> </p><p>Rey runs across a scrubby plain, paws beating the dirt as she puts distance between herself and her human life. Her clothes are back at camp, along with the rest of her meager possessions<span class="st">—</span>right now she’s free.</p><p>The full moon casts a cool, silvery illumination over the landscape, highlighting the steep peaks that surround them, turning the flats into a tangle of light and shadow. Rey feels the glow against her fur and rippling through her muscles, a buzzing exhilaration that makes her think of lightning storms on the open plains. The night crackles with magic, and she is helpless to resist the pull of it.</p><p>She throws back her head and howls, and the voices of her packmates rise in answer. High, sharp yips follow as the pack communicates about plans and possible food sources. Rey’s already taken down a rabbit, so she’s content for the moment. Its blood stains her muzzle, and the sharp, coppery scent is pleasing. In the morning she’ll wash her face, removing any trace of her primal instincts, but for now, she revels in it.</p><p>In the distance, a longer, deeper howl rises to greet the moon, followed by a matching chorus. Rey’s fur stands on end. She knows wolfsong when she hears it; now, she know who the singer is, too. Kylo Ren is out in the wilds tonight, leading his pack on a hunt.</p><p>Coyotes are small enough to become wolf-fodder, and these wolves are unlikely to be generous to the pack of coyotes that just robbed them. She yips at Rose, who is snuffling around a prairie dog burrow. Rose looks up, eyes bright above her dark-furred muzzle, and snorts, unimpressed with the wolves. She paws at the ground, trying to dig out the prairie dog.</p><p>Well, Rey can’t deny her packmate a solid meal, not when Rey already has rabbit resting in her gut. The wolves are still far enough away not to be a concern, but Rey keeps an eye out, anyway, stalking around the edges of their hunting grounds, ears pricking at the slightest sound.</p><p>Besides the freedom of running under the moonlight, the sharpness of her senses is her favorite part of being a werecoyote. Her eyes pick up the minutest of movements in the underbrush, and her nose catalogues a bouquet of scents her human nose can’t even begin to take in. There’s a whole ‘nother language written over the world, one that can’t be seen, only sensed.</p><p>She smells old scent markers from a few coyotes<span class="st">—</span>real ones, not weres<span class="st">—</span>and yips in amusement. What must they think of this pack that only appears on full moons? Are Rey and her kind legends to them?</p><p>Poe and Finn frolic in the distance, jumping on each other and snapping playfully. Kaydel noses around Rose’s hindquarters, sniffing out her glands. Those four are already looking forward to the mindless days of rut and heat, but Rey feels no such excitement. She huffs and focuses on sniffing out more prey. She doesn’t want to stuff herself, but she’ll need strength in order to ride out her heat alone.</p><p>She drifts further away from the group, reveling in the quiet hum of the plains at night. There’s life everywhere she looks. Even the distant wolf calls appeal to her, in a way. No matter how alone Rey feels in the world, moments like this remind her there’s a whole web of life out there, and she’s part of it.</p><p>She steps on something sharp and winces. A thorn, cutting into her paw. She hobbles over to a nearby stream and flops down under the gnarled tree on its banks, tipping her head down to nibble at her paw.</p><p>She’ll drink from those crystal-clear waters as soon as this thorn is out. It’s peaceful here; the rushing water reflects starlight and moonlight from above, and the burbling covers up the sounds of insects, owls, and burrowing critters.</p><p>Maybe that’s why she doesn’t hear him. </p><p>He strikes fast, a shadow coming out of the darkness. Before Rey can move, enormous jaws close around the back of her neck, and a heavy body pins her to the ground. She whines, expecting the killing blow…</p><p>But none comes.</p><p>She can smell him now. It’s that same pine-and-snowmelt scent, but the chocolate notes have turned into something musky and wild to her sensitive nose. Kylo Ren smells delicious as a wolf, too, but Rey’s never felt the urge to fuck in her animal form. More weres don’t<span class="st">—</span>the primal joy of shifting comes from other things.</p><p>Still, it reminds her that the night is very short and her heat will be very long, and the scent of him is going to drive her insane once she’s back in her human form.</p><p>She shifts beneath him, and he squeezes his jaws a little tighter. <em> Behave</em>, he seems to be saying.</p><p>He releases her slowly, cautiously, and Rey stays lying down, knowing he’ll be on her in a second if she tries to flee. Besides, part of her likes being put in her place by an Alpha. She’s not much of a one for hierarchy, but this close to heat, all her Omega instincts come out.</p><p>Kylo Ren steps back from her. The man in black now walks on four paws, like her. His eyes are gold in the moonlight, his fur a glossy black. He’s the biggest wolf she’s ever seen. Rey knows she’s no great specimen herself<span class="st">—</span>she’s got a mottled gray-brown coat and yellow eyes, like most coyotes, although she prides herself on the fluffiness of her tail. Finn always makes fun of her for grooming it incessantly, but she wonders if Kylo will like it. If he'll think she's pretty like this, the way she finds him oddly handsome.</p><p>His huge head lowers, and he snuffles at her paw. Investigating the injury. Rey lays still and passive, not wanting to provoke him.</p><p>His tongue darts out, and he licks the dirty pad of her foot. She whines at the little stab of pain as the thorn is jostled. Then, to her amazement, he lies down next to her and starts trying to work the thorn out of her paw with his teeth.</p><p>For such a big wolf<span class="st">—</span>with <em> huge </em> fangs, Lord<span class="st">—</span>he’s surprisingly gentle. His nibbles are downright delicate, and soon he’s able to tug the offending thorn out and spit it away. He licks her paw, then gets up and nudges her with his nose. He takes two steps towards the stream, then looks back over his shoulder.</p><p>Rey has no idea what in tarnation is happening. The last time she saw Kylo Ren, he was leveling a gun at her after she robbed him blind. There was the kissing, too<span class="st">—</span>Rey’s not going to be able to forget <em>that</em> anytime soon<span class="st">—</span>but overall, if she was asked to describe the general tone of their first meeting, she’d say “hostile.”</p><p>Now he seems downright friendly. Sure, there was the whole pinning-her-by-the-neck thing just now, but that’s classic Alpha nonsense. And if he hadn’t done it, Rey would have run away, so he wasn’t exactly wrong.</p><p>Kylo huffs and paws at the ground. Irritated by her delay, she supposes. Warily, Rey pushes to her feet, feeling relief when she takes a step and her paw no longer hurts. She approaches him, and he huffs again, but this time it sounds pleased. He turns and leads her down to the water.</p><p>To wash her wound, she realizes. It’s a reminder that under the black fur and fangs is a fully conscious man. Weres don’t go full primal when they shift; it’s just a piece of the experience, a spice they normally don’t get to indulge in. But even if Kylo’s instincts are flavored by his wolf nature, he’s as conscious as Rey is of what’s happening.</p><p>She wonders what's going on in his head, what he wants.</p><p>Rey steps into the stream, letting out a contented whuff when the cool water laps around her feet. Kylo steps into the stream, too, and without thinking about it, she pounces at him, splashing him like she would a packmate.</p><p>He stiffens and then just stands there, dripping water and staring at her. It’s funny, so she does it again, yipping playfully. He growls, but it’s a gentle thing; an admonishment, not a threat. Apparently big bad Kylo Ren doesn’t like having fun.</p><p>Well, Rey can have enough fun for both of them. She hunkers down in the stream until it washes over her chest, then rolls over to get her entire body wet. She makes sure she’s standing near Kylo before she shakes herself out, flinging drops everywhere.</p><p>He recoils and retreats a few steps. If Rey could laugh, she would. Instead, she yips at him, hopefully conveying her amusement.</p><p>He just stares at her, head slightly cocked, eyes gleaming gold in the moonlight. Like she’s a puzzle. Like he can’t quite figure out what he’s doing here, knee-deep in a stream with the werecoyote who just robbed him.</p><p>The reminder makes Rey’s good mood fade. Of course. He's not here because he wanted to see her; he tracked her down because she has the map, and he’s probably going to try to follow her to camp so he can retrieve it. The reason she’s not in danger is because he’s biding his time.</p><p>She can’t afford to let Kylo follow her. Once he gets the map, he’ll probably kill her packmates, kill her. And even if he doesn’t, she’ll be going into heat and vulnerable, and she’s never let a man near her in that state, not ever…</p><p>A wolf howl sounds from nearby. Rey stiffens, and Kylo sniffs the air, then howls back. Alerting them to their location? She backs away, fur bristling at the threat.</p><p>Inquisitive yips come from the other direction, getting louder. Her pack is looking for her. If the two groups meet…</p><p>She keeps retreating, ignoring Kylo’s growls. When he makes to follow her, she lunges towards him, baring her teeth and snapping. It’s a warning, not an attack, but it’s enough to stop him. He cocks his head just as a coyote howl splits the night. Rey snaps at him again, then growls. <em> Don’t follow me</em>, she thinks at him. <em> Leave me alone. </em></p><p>This time when she backs away, he doesn’t follow, so Rey turns and flees into the night, leaving Kylo Ren far behind.</p><p>-----</p><p>An hour before dawn, the pack huddles together beneath a rocky outcrop, ripping into the final kills of the night. For Rey it’s a lizard, which isn’t much, but it’s better than nothing, and she fed well earlier in the evening.</p><p>Poe is grooming Finn, long sweeps of his tongue over Finn’s ears and neck. Finn looks sleepy and content, belly full and being cared for by a packmate. Kaydel and Rose aren’t nearly so sweet. When they finish eating, they start fighting, rolling over and over in the dirt and nipping each other playfully. Rey can already smell their scents shifting<span class="st">—</span>animal musk taking on human notes, with the scent of heat and rut rising beneath it.</p><p>The pack will head back to camp shortly to bed down and prepare for the shift back. Rey, though, has a different destination. She stands and stretches, long back arching low, then shakes herself free of the dust of her travels. She vocalizes, a soft little grunt that will let the pack know she has to leave.</p><p>Four pairs of eyes watch as she trudges away. They would take care of her if she stayed<span class="st">—</span>she knows that, she really does<span class="st">—</span>but something stops her from accepting the unspoken offer. Having her heat with the pack isn’t right, isn’t what she really needs, although what it is she <em>does</em> need remains unclear. Besides, as much as she loves them, she doesn’t want them to see her like that.</p><p>So Rey heads deeper into the wilderness, towards the small camp she set up in a cave, where she’ll ride out her heat alone.</p><p>-----</p><p>When the first sliver of sun crosses the horizon, Rey shifts back. It isn’t painful, precisely, but it is uncomfortable. Grinding bones, elongating muscles, the odd feeling of being stretched out and compressed all at once. When it ends, she lies curled up on her side in the cave, naked and filthy.</p><p>Rey grimaces. She hates being this dirty, and the coppery aftertaste of blood isn’t so appealing in human form. Luckily, this cave has a spring in the back, and she brought toiletries. She gets up and stretches, groaning as her spine cracks.</p><p>The heat is coming on fast. She feels it in the tightness of her skin and the fire in her belly. Her glands are throbbing, and she’s already a mess between the legs, but thankfully, she’s still in possession of her wits. There’ll come a time when she’s just a quivering, whimpering wreck, but right now she’s alert enough to prepare everything she needs.</p><p>She bathes in the cold water, soaping her hair and body, then brushes her teeth with a chew-stick whose frayed ends hold tooth powder. She doesn’t bother putting on clothes after she dries off<span class="st">—</span>won’t be much point once the heat hits<span class="st">—</span>but she does spend a few minutes perfecting her nest of ratty blankets. A little voice inside her issues urgent commands: <em> Make the nest nice for Alpha and pups, need a good safe nest, must be perfect, perfect, perfect... </em>This isn’t perfect, far from it, but folks like Rey can’t afford better, so she tells the little voice to shut up. It works, which means she isn’t too far gone yet.</p><p>She checks that rations are stacked next to the nest, then settles down on her back in the middle of the blankets. Her skin is hypersensitive, and the scratch of wool feels both amazing and awful against her damp flesh. She’s sweating now, heat coiling from her gut into her fingers and toes. Slick pours out of her onto the blankets, and then a cramp rips through her abdomen, harsh enough to make her cry out. She reaches out blindly for the tools that will make all of this more bearable.</p><p>She drapes Kylo Ren’s bandana over the lower half of her face, inhaling his scent like an opium addict desperate for the pipe. It bursts in her nostrils, a glorious rush of winter forest, leather, and chocolate melted over a fire. She grows wetter, but the scent of her Alpha is soothing enough that the pain in her gut recedes for a moment. When she presses the bandana to the swollen glands on her throat, it feels so good that she cries out.</p><p>She grabs her most prized possession out of a basket<span class="st">—</span>a blown glass dildo she bought off a traveling Omega tinker years ago. It’s thick, with a rounded bulb at the base to pop inside her when her body starts screaming for a knot, and it’s the only thing Rey’s found that makes the heat easier to bear. Laudanum fuzzes her out but makes her feel less in control, and even if Rey didn't hate that blurry feeling, it's hard to masturbate while high. Fingers alone don't give her the sense of fullness she needs, and soaking in a cold stream only staves the heat off for a few minutes at a time. The dildo is it, and she can't imagine surviving a heat without it anymore.</p><p>She lines it up, but some innate stubbornness makes her hesitant to push it inside. The longer she waits, the longer she can postpone the inevitable, right? Once her body gets a taste of what it wants, she’ll be incapable of thinking about anything else.</p><p>A shadow darkens the entrance to the cave. Rey looks up, alarmed, and scrambles to close her legs and reach for the nearest weapon. Her fingers wrap around the mother-of-pearl hilt of her gun, and she sits upright and points it at the intruder.</p><p>Then his scent hits her, and the gun falls from nerveless fingers. It’s the scent from the bandana, Kylo Ren’s scent, except stronger and more potent than she’s ever smelled it before. He’s standing there in black clothes, chest heaving with his breaths and nostrils flaring as he takes in the scent of her impending heat. His hair is wet and slicked back<span class="st">—</span>he must have found a place to bathe, too.</p><p>Rey whimpers. Her glands throb, and another cramp stabs through her. <em> Yes, </em> her inner Omega screams. <em> AlphaAlphaAlpha. </em></p><p>He approaches, the jingle of his spurs loud in the small space. She expects him to fall on her like an animal<span class="st">—</span>craves it on some level<span class="st">—</span>but instead, he sinks to his knees beside the nest. “Omega,” he says, and <em> oh, </em>the sound of that word in his rolling thunder voice…</p><p>She swallows hard, trying to stay sane. “How did you find me?”</p><p>“Tracked you by scent last night,” he says. “I was headed out this way for my rut, anyway.”</p><p>That doesn’t make sense. “You have a whole pack to help you through rut.”</p><p>He raises his eyebrows. “So do you.”</p><p>He inches closer, and Rey’s traitorous legs spread without conscious thought. His eyes flick down to her slick core, and he breathes in deeply. “You smell sweet, little one,” he says. “And what a nice nest you’ve made. Far better than the cave I planned to hole up in.”</p><p>Rey whimpers. Alpha likes her nest. Alpha thinks she smells sweet. “Alpha,” she croaks, needing so much from him but unable to say any of it.</p><p>His hands clench and unclench on the blankets. He looks like it physically pains him to hold himself back. “Little thief, you and I are going to have words after this. But for now… let me help you.”</p><p>Her gaze moves from his smoldering brown eyes to his pink lips to the bulge stretching his trousers. He’s huge, bigger than her dildo, bigger than anything she’s had before. Not that Rey’s had a lot<span class="st">—</span>she’s fucked a few humans here and there, to pass the time, but never another were, and never during heat.</p><p>She licks her lips. “I’ve never…”</p><p>His eyebrows raise. “Never what?”</p><p>“Never had… a heat with anyone.”</p><p>He groans and squeezes his eyes shut. “Don’t tell me that. I’m going to fucking ruin you.” Then he looks at her again. “You’ve done the rest of it before though, right?” His accent is nice<span class="st">—</span>not heavy like Poe’s, more refined. He sounds like he comes from money. </p><p>“All but the knotting,” she whispers.</p><p>“Then you’ve never had an Alpha.”</p><p>Rey shakes her head wordlessly.</p><p>He groans again, and there’s something of the wolf in it this time. “Let me do it, little thief. Let me fuck you. Let me knot you. Let me pump you full of cum the way you need.”</p><p>It’s a damn good thing were pregnancies don’t happen outside mating bonds, because Rey already knows she won’t be able to resist this. No matter how much it scares her, no matter how vulnerable she'll feel, her body needs his on a level that goes way beneath the skin. Having her heat with the pack didn't feel right, but it feels right with <em>him.</em> “Rey,” she says, voice trembling. “My name is Rey.”</p><p>Satisfaction crosses his features. “Rey,” he repeats, voice a dark purr. “And White Lightning, too<span class="st">—</span>I recognize your guns. Had no idea the infamous sharpshooter was so pretty, though." He hums. "You smell so fucking good, little one. Like wildflowers and honey and so much fucking slick. I want to drink you down, and then I want to fill you up until you’re screaming on this knot.” His knuckles are white on the blankets, and his eyes are dilated so wide there’s almost no iris left. His rut’s coming on him, and she’s amazed he still has this much control.</p><p>Her pussy squeezes around nothing, and boiling heat lances through her as another cramp seizes her. She cries out and curls up on her side, wrapping her arms around her abdomen. “Hurts,” she moans. “Please, Alpha, it hurts…”</p><p>“Let me help you, Omega,” he says, leaning towards her as if unable to resist the pull. “Say yes and let me fuck you.”</p><p>Rey’s falling into this fast. All she can think about is his cock, his knot. All she can smell is pine and leather. All she can taste is want. She’s empty, and she doesn’t want to be empty. She wants to be full of him.</p><p>The decision was made the second he stepped into the cave, but Rey makes it real. “Yes, Alpha. Do it.”</p>
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<a name="section0003"><h2>3. they will run you down, down 'til you fall</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>More trigger warnings for the usual A/B/O dubcon! This is consensual, but Rey isn't totally in her right mind.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
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</div><p> </p><p>Kylo Ren wastes no time. He’s on her in a flash, pressing her to her back on the blanket and settling between her thighs. His lips slam down on hers, and it’s rough, not sweet, but that suits Rey just fine. She’s never been particularly sweet.</p><p>She bites his lower lip before opening her mouth for him. He grunts, and then he’s inside, testing and tasting, stroking his tongue over hers. He kisses like he owns her, or maybe like he wants to - like she’s new territory and he’s an explorer determined to map it all out.</p><p>Her hands scramble over his shoulders, tugging at his clothing, and her hips roll in a desperate cadence. She’s getting him all wet, smearing her slick over his black trousers, but the harsh rub of canvas isn’t what she needs. She whimpers and claws at his shirt again.</p><p>“You need something, little thief?” he asks, pulling away from her lips. And oh, he looks wild - hair mussed, lips red and swollen, pupils wide with arousal. The wolf’s there, just under the surface, and Rey’s cunt clenches around nothing at the feral light in his eyes.</p><p>“Off,” she demands, snapping one suspender against his chest.</p><p>He chuckles. “So demanding. Has no one ever put you in your place, Omega?”</p><p>She bares her teeth at him, despite the urge to tilt her neck back and expose her gland in a gesture of submission. Nature and character don’t always overlap, and Rey’s never been one to roll over. It’s hard to think past the heat, but she manages words somehow. “I’m not one of your wolves.”</p><p>He fists a hand in her damp hair and tugs her head to the side, baring her neck. “You're still <em> mine, </em> though.”</p><p>Then his lips are caressing the swollen scent gland at the side of her neck, and Rey’s lost. It feels so <em> good </em> - his tongue soothing the sweet, throbbing ache, his hot breath sending chills over her exposed skin. He sucks on the gland, sending a bolt of pleasure between her legs, and Rey shouts.</p><p>“You taste like honey,” he says, lapping at her. “Never knew anything in the world would smell this good.”</p><p>“Please.” The cry is ripped out of Rey despite her pride. Her lower belly <em> hurts, </em> and she feels so empty…</p><p>“Please what?” he asks, taking no mercy on her. His hand slides to cover her breast, and he tweaks one pebbled nipple.</p><p>“Take them off,” she groans, yanking on a suspender again. “Need you, need skin…”</p><p>His nostrils flare, and he kneels up between her legs. Rey makes a sound of protest at having him farther away. She starts to sit up to reach for him, but he pushes her back down with a hand that nearly spans her torso. “You have to give me time to take it off,” he says, humor sparking in his eyes. “Greedy little thief.”</p><p>She settles back into her nest of blankets, watching hungrily as he unbuttons his black shirt and shrugs off his suspenders. He stands to strip off his cowboy boots, socks, and trousers, and then it’s just him, no undergarments in sight. Like her, he probably thought they were a waste of time.</p><p>She gapes at his cock. It’s big - even bigger than her dildo - with a swollen, reddish section at the base where he’ll pop a knot. His foreskin is drawn back to reveal the thick, ruddy head, and a drop of precum beads at the tip as she stares.</p><p>Her cunt clenches, and more slick rushes out of her as she imagines taking that monster cock inside her. Her rational mind says it’s too much, that he’ll split her in two, but her body is<em> screaming </em> for it.</p><p>“You like this,” Kylo says, gripping himself and giving a leisurely pump. “I can smell how much.”</p><p>She can smell his want, too. It’s fierce in her nostrils, every blissful note that makes up his scent condensed into something so potent, the air feels thick with it. She licks her lips, imagining what that drop of precum must taste like.</p><p>“Shit.” Kylo drops to his knees and leans in to start lapping at her gland again. “You smell so good, you hot little bitch…”</p><p>Rey moans and grinds against him, rubbing her soaking wet pussy over his cock. The contact makes her eyes roll back in her head, and fresh fire scalds from her belly to her fingertips. A cramp stabs through her, and tears prick her eyes.</p><p>“Kylo, please.”</p><p>“Please what?” he asks before kissing down her sternum. He sucks one nipple into his mouth, then the other, and Rey jerks at the sharp pleasure.</p><p>“I need it,” she says, head thrashing on the blankets. She’s burning up inside. Enemy or not, she’s going to <em>die</em> if she can’t get him inside her.</p><p>“Need what?” he asks, kissing even further down. He noses through the hair at her groin, then sighs in pleasure. “Smells so good.” He lowers further to lip a hot strike up her slit, and then he starts devouring her greedily, lapping up her slick and drawing out more with his clever tongue.</p><p>Rey cries out, reaching down to wind her fingers through his hair. She bucks against him, greedy for more pressure, but even though his mouth feels amazing, it isn’t enough. Tears trail down her cheeks. “Need you in me, need your knot," she says. "Please, Kylo, please please please, it hurts, it hurts…”</p><p>“You need it bad,” he says. He sinks two fingers inside her, then groans. “Have to make sure you can take me, though.”</p><p>“I can take you.” She nearly screams the words. “So fucking do it!”</p><p>He grins up at her, but it looks more like he’s baring his teeth. His muscles tremble, and his fingers jerk inside her, slamming into a spot that makes her see stars. “That’s not how a good Omega begs,” he says, voice impossibly deep.</p><p>Nature wins the battle with character, and Rey succumbs to the burning need. “Please, Alpha,” she begs. “Please fuck me, knot me, fill me up.”</p><p><em> Need pups, </em> her inner Omega screams, despite it being an impossibility outside of a mating bond. <em> Good strong seed, good strong Alpha, more more more…</em> She rarely wants pups outside of heat, but right now her instincts are begging for this Alpha to give them to her.</p><p>His fingers leave her pussy, making Rey whimper, but then he crawls over her and settles between her thighs. Rey loops her legs around his waist, using them for leverage as she grinds against him. When the tip of him catches in her entrance, they both groan.</p><p>“Sweet Omega,” he says, reaching between them to line himself up properly. His eyes are dark, and there's something haunting in the desperation reflected there. “Gonna give you everything you need.”</p><p>Then he’s sinking in, one thick, hot inch at a time. Rey screams and digs her nails into his back, clinging to him as he invades her. The stretch is intense. Her pussy clamps down on him as if trying to suck him in deeper, and he grunts, then surges in the rest of the way.</p><p>Rey closes her eyes and tips her head back on the blankets, gasping for breath as she tries to get accustomed to his size. She’s never been this full in her life; never even imagined it was possible. She understands now why people go mad for this, why they kill for this, why her packmates can’t comprehend her burning out her heats alone.</p><p>This is <em>everything.</em></p><p>“All right?” he asks, gentler than she expected.</p><p>She opens her eyes to find him staring down at her with a mix of hunger and concern. He’s shaking again, and his shoulders muscles are bunched and tense as he holds himself over her. He’s holding himself back, she realizes. Clinging to whatever scrap of sanity he’s managed to carry into rut to make sure he doesn’t hurt her.</p><p>The knowledge touches some soft part of her heart, something she thought long-since locked away. <em> My Alpha, </em> her Omega croons. <em> Safe with him. </em></p><p>Rey’s never been safe with anyone but pack. It frightens her, how easily she’s giving in to this. This is why she's always been afraid of having a heat with someone - she turns into a needy, weak version of herself, one that begs for things her rational mind would never want. She's terrified, but she's falling, anyway, a slave to the needs of her body.</p><p>“Move,” she orders him, barely stopping herself from begging him to hold her and never let her go.</p><p>A muscle under his eye twitches, and his lips tighten, then relax. “Greedy little thief,” he says, pulling out of her before slamming in fast and hard. The movement knocks a cry out of her. “You’re going to steal everything from me, aren’t you?”</p><p>She doesn’t understand what he means, and it’s impossible to think past the fire roaring through her veins. Any fear is burned away by primal want. “More,” she begs. “Please, Alpha.”</p><p>He bares his teeth again, and then he’s moving, pounding into her in a hard, fast rhythm. She buries her face in his shoulder, clinging to him for dear life while he gives her exactly what she wants. He angles his hips until he’s hitting a sweet spot deep inside her on every thrust, and Rey cries out as tension coils in her belly. She’s a trigger waiting for a finger, her orgasm locked in the chamber and ready to explode.</p><p>Kylo makes the best noises while he fucks her - grunts and wolfish growls that make her impossibly wetter. She was made for this, she thinks deliriously. She can’t think why she’s been denying herself all these years.</p><p><em> Only with Alpha, </em> her Omega says, and <em>yes,</em> that’s the reason. Her heat is meant to be shared with this man alone.</p><p>“So <em> wet,</em>” he says. “My perfect Omega. So good and soft and needy. I’ll give you whatever you need, Rey.”</p><p>It’s the first time he’s called her by her name since they started, and for some reason, that hits Rey hard in the soft place where her vulnerability lies. She sobs and holds him tighter, wishing she could sink into him and somehow merge with his powerful body until there’s no space left between them at all.</p><p>“Need you,” she says brokenly.</p><p>He growls, then grabs her hair and pulls, jerking her head to the side to reveal her gland again. “Gonna bite you here,” he says, licking her gland. She tenses up, a sliver of rationality surfacing through the haze. It isn't a mating bite, but it's close. “Just here, I promise,” he says. “But I need it so bad. Please, Rey.”</p><p>Alphas never beg - at least, not ones like this, big and powerful and unyielding. ‘Please’ isn’t supposed to be in their vocabulary, but he just begged to bite her scent gland, and Rey can deny him nothing. Her mating gland throbs at the back of her neck, craving the imprint of his teeth, too, and she’s both grateful and distraught that he’s promised not to touch it.</p><p>Her heat is only going to get worse from here. She prays she can stay sane enough not to beg him to bite her, claim her, keep her. This is all happening so fast, and Kylo is an enemy, and... </p><p>He licks her, and coherent thought falls away. “Do it,” she says, arching her neck even farther.</p><p>The moment his teeth close around the sensitive pucker of flesh, Rey falls apart. It’s explosive and sudden, like firing a gun, and she screams as her cunt clenches in rhythmic bursts around him. The pleasure goes on and on, and she sobs and writhes beneath him, begging for his knot.</p><p>“Fuck!” He slams inside her one last time and shakes, and Rey feels the unmistakable sensation of something ballooning inside her. There’s a moment of panic - his knot is huge, stretching her to the point of discomfort - but somehow her body takes it. The rush of his cum is like a cooling salve over her heated skin, and she sighs as the fiery pain recedes.</p><p>Her head clears, and she stares up at him, both awed and shaken. He looks wrecked, too, and he groans softly every time his knot pulses inside her, pumping her full of more cum.</p><p>This part is new. Rey’s used to humans, not weres; she didn’t realize it would go on and on like this. Soon she feels full and swollen, lower belly slightly distended from both the huge intrusion of his cock and the flood of his seed.</p><p>There’s a final tremor, and then he sags over her, burying his face in her neck. He licks her gland again, slow, soothing passes of his tongue over the bruised flesh. It fills Rey with a sense of peace, and she relaxes into the blankets. He just gave her the fuck of a lifetime, and he didn't bite her mating gland while he was at it. She's still somewhat sane.</p><p>Eventually, though, the weight of him gets to be too much, and she gently shoves at his shoulder. “Roll over,” she says, voice scratchy.</p><p>He obliges, bringing her with him. His knot tugs at Rey’s opening, a slightly painful stretch, and then she’s settling into place on his chest, his brawny arms wrapped around her.</p><p>“How was it?” he asks softly. “Your first Alpha.”</p><p>He might as well ask how the constellations are, or the wind in her hair when galloping across the plains, or the way the night smells when she’s free and on the hunt. “Good,” she says softly, unable to say all the words bottled up inside her. Then, seeing his frown, she clarifies. “Perfect.”</p><p>His face relaxes, and he grins at her. It’s boyish and a little goofy, revealing crooked teeth, and he looks nothing like a big, scary wolf. Rey likes that just as much as she likes him when he's all growly and fierce. “Good,” he says, bringing a hand to her head and pressing her face to his chest. “Get some sleep,” he murmurs, pressing a kiss to her hair. “The heat’ll be on you again soon.”</p><p>Rey’s never fallen asleep next to a stranger in her life. She’s never trusted anyone but pack to care for her. But now, wrapped in the arms of a werewolf, she feels safer than she ever has. The little voice of caution fades, her Omega taking the fore and insisting that everything is as it should be.</p><p>She sleeps.</p><p>-----</p><p>She surges upright, snapping out of dreams of running through the woods, afraid and alone. Her throat is dry, and her skin burns like she’s been out in the sun too long. Then the pain hits her, like being stabbed in the gut by a hot poker, and she doubles over with a groan.</p><p>Kylo isn’t next to her. She doesn’t know when he pulled out of her, but she’s sore and empty between the thighs, still trickling cum onto the blankets. Panic seizes her, sending her heart into a frantic race. “Alpha,” she whines as another jolt of pain wracks her shivering frame. She curls up like a pillbug, knees to her chest as she tries to breathe through the pain.</p><p>She smells him before she sees him - a burst of burning pine that reeks of frantic worry. Then he’s rushing towards her from the back of the cave, still fully nude but holding a canteen. “Rey, are you all right?” He drops to his knees beside her, setting the canteen down before gripping her shoulders and hauling her to her knees.</p><p>“Hurts,” she whines, reaching for him. She mashes her lips against his shoulder, then his neck, kissing whatever she can reach. Her head is a foggy mix of fear and want, and all she can think about is the panic of waking up without him. “You left me, you left me…”</p><p>“Shh,” he soothes, wrapping her in his arms and rocking her back and forth. “I was getting water and washing up a bit. You need to drink.”</p><p>She shakes her head, clinging to him, but he manages to pry her arms away from his neck. He shoves the canteen at her. “Drink,” he commands, voice ringing with innate Alpha authority. “Then I’ll fuck you again.”</p><p>Rey scrabbles at the top of the canteen, desperate to do whatever it takes to get to his cock as soon as possible. She moans when the cool water hits her throat. It tastes like minerals from the rock and metal from the canteen, and in that moment, it’s better than a shot of good whiskey. She chugs greedily until Kylo pulls it away. Water spills down her chin and drips onto her bare breasts, and she whines in protest, chasing the canteen with her mouth.</p><p>“Not all at once,” he says. “You’ll make yourself sick.”</p><p>She already feels sick. Another cramp hits her, and she hunches over. She’s hot all over, burning up with the worst fever of her life, and it hurts, it hurts, it hurts…</p><p>She doesn’t realize she’s saying the words out loud until he shushes her. He flips her over onto her belly, then jerks her hips up, banding a forearm around her abdomen to hold her in place as he kneels behind her. Rey presses her cheek against the scratchy wool, breathing in the mingled scent of their cum.</p><p>His cock nudges her entrance, and she pushes back eagerly. He sinks into her on a long, slow stroke, and Rey moans in relief as he bottoms out, his hips pressed flush against her backside. He feels even bigger, somehow, goes even deeper, but Rey knows she can take anything he gives her. She's built for this - built for <em>him.</em></p><p>“Good Omega,” he praises as he starts thrusting. He’s gentle at first, only withdrawing a few inches before nudging back in, but when Rey growls and shoves her hips back roughly, he starts giving it to her harder. “You’re gorgeous,” he says. “My hot little bitch, begging to get fucked. You need it rough, don’t you?”</p><p>She moans in affirmation and spreads her legs wider. She likes the way he’s talking to her, how crude and passionate he is. “Please, Alpha,” she says. “Rougher.”</p><p>He swears, and his fingers tighten on her hips hard enough to bruise. “Unreal,” he says. “Thought it was a myth.” He slams into her harder, and Rey cries out in ecstasy. “Never thought it’d happen, but here you are.”</p><p>Rey doesn’t know what he’s talking about; her head is far too foggy for that. All she knows is that she needs him to knot her, breed her, bite her. “More, Alpha!”</p><p>“Best cunt in the world,” he says, reaching around to rub her clit. “Greedy for my cock, which is right for a thief. You gonna take my seed, Omega? Steal it from me with that tight fucking pussy?”</p><p>“Yesssss.” She squeezes the blanket hard. Her orgasm is coming soon - she can feel it in the flush of her skin and the tingling between her legs. She’s losing her mind, drowning in his scent and the feel of him inside her. She wants him to fuck her forever.</p><p>The gland at the back of her neck aches. She tips her head so her hair slides off her neck, although some sweaty strands still cling to her skin. “Bite me,” she says, that one thought coming clear through the haze of need.</p><p>Kylo makes an inhuman sound behind her - a growl that merges into a howl. His mouth settles over her mating gland, but he just stays like that, breathing over her sensitive skin while he pounds into her.</p><p>“Do it,” she says in a whiny voice that doesn’t sound like her. “Alpha, do it, breed me, knot me, keep me…”</p><p>“Rey.” He says her name like it hurts him. “I want to so bad.”</p><p>Then why isn’t he doing it? Rey opens her mouth to beg again, but right then, he pinches her clit, and she’s done for. She spasms around him, shrieking into the blankets as she comes hard.</p><p>He follows quickly, burying himself deep inside her before his knot expands to lock them in place. He licks her mating gland the whole time, muttering inaudible things against it. No one’s ever touched Rey there, and she nearly faints when the pleasure of it makes her orgasm again.</p><p>They lie on their sides after, breathing hard. Kylo’s arms are banded around her, cradling her close, and his lips brush the top of her head.</p><p>Rey stares at the back of the cave and the trickling spring. She’s exhausted, but the heat lingers - even his seed wasn’t enough to dispel it entirely. The inner Omega is in control, and tears prick her eyes as that voice cries out for things it can’t have. <em> Pups, family, belonging… </em></p><p>“Rey.” He squeezes her tighter. “What is it?”</p><p>“You didn’t bite me,” she says in a tear-blurred voice. Once again, she’s not enough for someone. No one will ever keep her.</p><p>“Rey…” He sounds upset, and she shrinks in shame. Alpha is upset with her, Alpha is angry… “Hey,” he says when she starts to cry. “What’s going on?”</p><p>“Made Alpha upset,” she sobs. He’s still knotted in her, too - she can’t even get away to go cry in private.</p><p>“No, no,” he soothes. “I’m not angry.”</p><p>It settles her down a bit. There’s a drugging quality to his voice, something that makes her limp and pliant. “You’re not?”</p><p>“I could never be upset with you. Except when you rob me.” She stiffens, but his chuckle prevents the barb from sticking. “I’m not going to claim you yet,” he says. “You’re not thinking straight, and neither am I.”</p><p>“I am,” she protests, nudging her hips back against him. She’s absolutely positive this is what she wants.</p><p>“Let’s talk when heat is over,” he says, kissing her hair again. “Deal?”</p><p>Rey pouts. She doesn’t like it, but he is her Alpha, so he gets the final say. “Deal,” she finally agrees.</p><p>“Good.”</p><p>She feels it this time, the way his knot deflates bit by bit. When he pulls out, cum practically gushes out of her, pooling on the blankets. Rey dips a finger in it and starts licking it off, humming happily at the flavor. It’s potent as moonshine, salt and musk imbued with his signature scent, and it makes her hungry for more.</p><p>He groans. “You’re going to kill me.” He stands, stretching until his joints crack. “Come on,” he says, reaching down to her. “Let’s get a bath and some food.”</p><p>Rey eyes his hand hesitantly. She doesn’t want food; she wants to stay in this cocoon forever, getting fucked to kingdom come.</p><p>“Come, Omega.”</p><p>The order sinks into the primal part of her that preens at being commanded. She smiles up at him and slips her hand into his. “Yes, Alpha.”</p><p>-----</p><p>He washes and feeds her with care, talking to her in that rough whiskey voice she can’t get enough of. Soon the fire builds again, and she’s desperate to get knotted. He fucks her against the cave wall, then in the pool, then on their blankets again. The air stinks of sex, and she inhales it like a drug. As her heat and his rut deepen, the sex gets rougher, more animalistic. Soon neither of them can speak in complete sentences.</p><p>When evening comes around, casting the cave in shades of purple, they’re at it again. He fucks her from behind, balls slapping against her clit with every deep stroke. It’s heaven, and Rey babbles and begs, tipping her head forward to show him her mating gland. <em> Alpha, Alpha, Alpha... </em></p><p>But no matter how much she pleads, he doesn’t bite her. As they lie knotted together after, Rey is left wondering why, when Kylo Ren smells like home and belonging, he doesn’t seem to feel the same way about her.</p>
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<a name="section0004"><h2>4. let that fever make the water rise</h2></a>
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</div><p> </p><p>Rey comes to awareness slowly. Her entire body aches—she feels like she’s been trampled by a herd of wild horses and left for dead. She shifts on her blankets, then winces. The sharpest soreness comes from between her thighs. </p><p>Her eyelids are so heavy, it takes serious effort to open them. The rocky cave ceiling swims into focus, illuminated by the reflected light of the rising sun. The air smells like sex, and when she turns onto her side, she realizes the wool blanket is sopping wet.</p><p>Oh, God.</p><p>Her heat.</p><p>Rey’s cheeks burn as flashes of memory come to her. Writhing naked in Kylo Ren’s arms. Begging for his knot and…<em> shit. </em></p><p>She begged him to bite her.</p><p>Rey’s hand flies to the back of her neck, and she sighs in relief when she finds the skin there smooth and unbroken. Her mating gland is sensitive to the touch, as it always is after a heat, but somehow, Kylo refrained from biting her.</p><p><em> Because Alpha doesn’t want us, </em>that small Omega voice whispers in her mind.</p><p><em> Shut up, </em> she tells it. It wasn’t so small over the last few days, but this is <em>Rey's </em>time now. That pathetic, mewling creature can crawl back into its dark hole at the back of her brain until the next full moon, when Rey will trudge back out to this cave or another one to spend her heat alone.</p><p>
  <em>Alone.</em>
</p><p>Kylo Ren isn’t here. She knows that without even looking.</p><p>When the other werecoyotes wake up after heat, they lie in an affectionate tangle for hours, long enough for Rey to head back into camp and find them in a messy, naked heap. She’ll often cuddle them then, when the frantic fucking is over, taking comfort from their touch after days of painful loneliness. It's a vulnerable time, and no Alpha should leave their Omega unattended directly after heat.</p><p>But Rey isn’t <em> his</em> Omega, is she? She’s a random Omega he fucked out of desperation. A random one who robbed him, at that.</p><p>The thought sends her shooting up into a sitting position. She looks around wildly, then sighs in relief when she sees her leather bag lying next to this messy, sex-stained pile of blankets. She crawls over, bruised knees aching from all the times Kylo fucked her like a dog fucks a bitch in heat.</p><p>That’s what she becomes after the full moon, isn’t it? A bitch. Useful for whelping and obeying Alpha commands and not much else.</p><p>The thought is even more bitter now that Rey’s finally gone through a heat with an Alpha. Omegas always say it’s magical, and she agrees it's miles better than having a heat alone, potentially life-changing, but what did it end up being?</p><p>Just one more way for someone to abandon her.</p><p>When she opens the satchel, dread plops into her stomach like a rock.</p><p>The map is gone.</p><p>“Fuck,” Rey says as she rummages through her meager belongings. There's stuff here she didn’t put there: the unused glass dildo, now carefully wrapped in a red bandanna, and a few stale bread rolls, no doubt the result of Kylo's instincts to feed her. Her fingers brush something smooth at the bottom of the bag, and she finds a small whittled carving of a wolf.</p><p>What is this, a memento? “Vain bastard,” she says. Her hand clenches around the carving, and she makes to throw it into the pool, but she can’t quite let go. She huffs in annoyance, then stuffs it back into the very bottom of the bag. This reluctance is just the residue of her heat, lingering like milk skin on a cup of hot chocolate. When she’s clearer-headed, she’ll chuck it into the trash where it belongs.</p><p>Thankfully for her<span class="st">—</span>shortsightedly of him<span class="st">—</span>Kylo Ren left her her guns. She strokes her fingers over the pretty mother-of-pearl grips, wondering which of her bullets is going to have the privilege of plugging between his stupid eyes when she catches up to him.</p><p>As she heads to the back of the cave to wash herself and whatever she can salvage of the blankets, she ignores the twinge in her chest at the thought of Kylo Ren lying dead at her feet.</p><p>#</p><p>She strides out of the cave not thirty minutes later, leather pack slung over her shoulder and guns holstered at her hips, ready to track Kylo Ren down and take the map to La Montaña de Oro from him by force.</p><p>She stops dead at the sight of him leading a large black horse up towards the cave from the valley floor.</p><p>Her own horse, Falcon, is still tethered by the entrance. Rey makes quick work of saddling her. She isn’t sure why Kylo’s back, but she needs to be ready.</p><p>“You’re awake,” he says once he’s near enough to hail her. His grin is a slice of white under the brim of her black cowboy hat.</p><p>Rey means to give him a piece of her mind for stealing the map from her—even if she stole it from him first, it’s a low-down, no-good trick to steal it from someone after you fucked them into unconsciousness—but to her great shame, she says something different entirely. “Where were you?”</p><p>“Wolf business. I needed to check on the pack, make sure everyone’s heat and rut burned out fine.”</p><p>So he could care about his own pack’s Omegas, but not about her? She crosses her arms, both steaming mad and relieved for reasons she doesn’t entirely want to think about. “You left me.”</p><p>“Sorry, little one.” He dismounts from his stallion with ease, spurs jingling as he lands, and even that simple movement seems more attractive when performed by such a large, fit man. “You were passed out, and I could smell the heat was over, so I took my chances. I was hoping to get back before sunup, but…” He shrugs. “There was an incident with some sheep that needed to be cleaned up.”</p><p>The endearment rubs her the wrong way now that she’s in her right mind again. “I’m not your little one,” she spits.</p><p>“No?” He raises his brows and steps towards her. “That’s not what you said last night. Or the night before. Or—”</p><p>“Shut up,” she says, stepping clear of Falcon so she’ll have a clear shot if she needs to take it. Then something Kylo said registers, and her brow crinkles. “Hold up a minute. You said an incident with <em> sheep? </em> You wolves really are disgusting.”</p><p>He rolls his eyes. “No one fucked a sheep, if that’s your concern. An Alpha got a little too eager during a midnight hunt for his Omega and left a messy trail. During rut, we may look like men, but the wolf does a lot of the thinking.”</p><p>“Hm.” She eyes him up and down, gaze lingering on his muscled thighs and the bulge between. When she realizes she’s blatantly ogling him, she snaps her eyes back up, but it’s too late to evade notice, considering the way he’s smirking like he won some kind of award. He hooks his fingers in his belt loops as if trying to draw her attention lower again, but Rey ignores it. “You didn’t go on any midnight hunts for me.”</p><p>His dark brows rise. “Didn’t I? I seem to remember you moaning about my <em>meat</em> last night.”</p><p>Rey’s cheeks burn. Then a flash of memory comes back to her—a rabbit roasting over the fire, juices dripping down her chin, and Rey moaning that it’s the best meat she’s ever eaten. “Whatever,” she says. “You still left.”</p><p>His gaze softens. “I truly am sorry, little thief.”</p><p>The words are a reminder of why else she’s pissed at him, other than the fact that he left her to clean up her heat alone. “You stole my map,” she says, fingers brushing the hilts of her guns.</p><p>His eyes catch the movement, but although tension enters his posture, he doesn’t make to draw his own pistols. “I believe you mean I took my rightful property back.”</p><p>“You took advantage of me.” The more Rey thinks about it, the madder she gets. He saw her at her most vulnerable, and he used that break in her defenses to steal from her. No wonder he didn’t try to bite her; he didn’t come here for her, after all.</p><p>“Hey, now,” he says, hands held up placatingly. “I’d argue we both took advantage of each other, wouldn’t you say? You needed a big, fat knot to tide you over, just like I needed that tight little cunt.”</p><p>Rey pulls her guns on him faster than he can blink. “Talk about me like that again, wolf, and you’re going to get well-acquainted with the dirt.”</p><p>He stands very still as she aims both barrels at his chest. “I’m sorry, Omega. I—”</p><p>“I have a name.”</p><p>His eyes widen, and Rey wonders if he’s ever dealt with an Omega like her before, one who wants none of that submission nonsense in her daily life if she can help it. “I’m sorry, Rey,” he says, and at least that’s something, that he remembers her name. “I’ve been informed my manners could use… improvement.”</p><p>She snorts. “I don’t give a shit about your manners. I care that you followed me here to take that map. You used me sexually so you could get your things back." An uncomfortable, too-hot emotion rises in her chest, threatening to spill out from her throat. “This is exactly why I’ve avoided lying with Alphas my whole life. Omegas are just another toy to you, aren’t they? Something to play with, then discard.” To her horror, her eyes are starting to water. She doesn’t cry much, but this is a different pain than she’s used to. She feels dirty and used, betrayed yet again by a person she let get close to her.</p><p>“Rey, please. It wasn’t like that.” He holds out a hand placatingly, but she can see his other one inching towards his hips. He’s going to draw on her if he can, ready to either take her out or turn this showdown into a standoff.</p><p>“Stop right there,” she says, voice cold as ice. “Hands in the sky.”</p><p>He makes a frustrated noise but doesn’t move. “Can you just fucking listen?”</p><p>In response, Rey aims at his feet and fires, plugging a bullet into the dirt an inch from his boots.</p><p>He jumps about three feet in the air. “Jesus, you crazy bitch!”</p><p>“Call me a crazy bitch again,” she snaps. “Tell me I made it all up in my head. Just another emotional Omega, right?” Rey sucks in a deep breath, trying to resist the sting of tears. “I should’ve known it would go this way. Now get your fucking hands in the air.”</p><p>Slowly, Kylo does as she says. His eyes look sad, and she doesn’t like that one bit, so she focuses on the slight movements of his body: the shift of his boots in the dust, the way he balances his weight, bracing for a fight.</p><p>“I’m no good at talking,” he says. “I say stupid shit, but you have to believe me. I followed you for the map, but that’s not the only reason. Rey, you smell <em> so good.” </em> He almost growls the words, and that’s enough to draw her attention to his face again. His eyes are half-lidded, his teeth bared in a snarl. “You smell like nothing I’ve ever encountered before. I needed more of it.”</p><p>She needed it, too, but she wasn’t the one who followed an Omega close to heat into the wilderness. “You knew what would happen,” she says, guns steady on him. “You knew you’d end up fucking me.”</p><p>“I hoped.” When she makes an angry sound in response, his eyes widen again. “Easy,” he says in a soothing tone that just riles Rey up more. “I didn’t know you’d never been with an Alpha. How could I? All I knew was that the best-smelling Omega in the world was about to go into heat, and she needed me.”</p><p>“I didn’t need you,” Rey says, even though her body begs to differ. She may be sore and bruised all over, but it isn’t the ugly ache she usually feels in her womb after a heat spent alone.</p><p>“Well, then maybe I needed you!” he shouts, temper finally exploding. “Maybe I fucking needed you, and after you kissed me and played with me in the stream and looked at me like.. like…” He makes a frustrated noise. “Maybe I thought this was something you wanted, too."</p><p>A tear really does slip out of Rey’s eye now. This thing between them is getting all wrong and twisted, and she doesn’t know how to salvage it. She does know one thing, though—it isn’t fair to leave Kylo thinking she didn’t want to have sex with him. “I did,” she says softly.</p><p>“What?” he asks. She can see the tremble of his hands silhouetted against the blue sky.</p><p>“I did want it,” she says more strongly. “And I guess—I’m not used to wanting things.”</p><p>Some of the pain leaves his expression, but there’s still tension there. So much simmers under the surface between them, and Rey doesn’t know what to do with this hot, awful <em> need. </em>She isn’t used to needing things, either.</p><p>“Rey, can I please put my hands down?” he asks.</p><p>Rey makes a frustrated noise. Dammit, she can’t just shoot him and ride off to find La Montaña de Oro. “Toss your guns away,” she says. “And know I can plug you in the heart before you get a clear shot.”</p><p>He huffs and shakes his head. “I know they call you White Lightning for a reason. And fuck me if that doesn’t make me hard.”</p><p>He moves slowly, and Rey watches with the fixed attention of a hawk, waiting for a single sign that he’s about to shoot her. He unholsters his guns, then tosses them on the dirt a few feet away.</p><p>“I hope you know it causes me great pain to disrespect my guns like that,” he says, settling his hands back at his belt.</p><p>Rey inclines her head. She can respect a person’s love of a good weapon. “It’s necessary."</p><p>They stare at each other for a long moment, and Rey realizes she has no idea how she wants this conversation to go, or even what it should involve.</p><p>“So,” he says. “Who talks first?”</p><p>Rey takes a deep breath. “You can talk about why you used me for sex in order to steal that map back.”</p><p>A muscle in his cheek flickers. “I just said, I didn’t use you for sex. You smelled good, and I thought your behavior was… encouraging. You know, with the kissing and all.”</p><p>He has a point about the kissing, but she lets him see her disbelief regarding his motives. “So that’s the only reason you tracked me down? Because I smelled nice?”</p><p>He rubs the back of his neck with one big hand. “Look, I won’t lie, I wanted my map back. I’ve been planning that adventure for years. But honestly, the smell was most of why I followed you. Rey, you do know it’s not normal for us to smell this good to each other, right?”</p><p>“I can’t say I know much of anything when it comes to wolves and coyotes scenting each other.”</p><p>“It isn’t about being different types of shifters.” He looks at her beseechingly. “Ask anyone in your pack. When someone smells this good… it means something.”</p><p>Her heart skips a beat, and her palms start sweating on the grips of her guns. “What does it mean?”</p><p>“Well…” He shifts awkwardly. “It means we could… we might…”</p><p>“Yes?” she asks when it seems he’s having trouble spitting it out.</p><p>“Can you maybe put the guns down for a second?" he asks. "It’s not exactly reassuring.”</p><p>Rey sighs, then lowers the pistols, but she doesn’t reholster them. “I can still shoot you before you move even a foot towards those guns,” she warns him.</p><p>“Trust me, I believe you.” He mutters something under his breath she can’t quite make out before addressing her again. “When people smell that good to each other, it means they might be mates.”</p><p>Rey rocks back on her heels. A mix of alarm and interest percolates in her breast. “Mates? Like… life-bonded mates?” She’s heard of those, but they’re rare among the werecoyotes, who prefer to form larger pack bonds instead of pairing off. Sure, some people smell better than others, but when someone gets bitten, it's usually for protection or convenience, rather than some grand love story.</p><p>“Yeah, like life-bonded mates.” He rubs his neck again, looking bashful, and Rey thinks she's discovered one of his tells.</p><p>“I’ve never seen a pair of life-bonded mates,” she says.</p><p>He works his lips, some complex emotion passing over his face. “I have. Long ago.”</p><p>It’s all a little too much for Rey to believe. “So what, because we smell good to each other, we’re supposed to be together forever? Raise pups?” <em> Yes! </em> the Omega inside her screams, but Rey shuts it up immediately. “What about free will? Getting to choose?”</p><p>“I can’t say about free will,” he says, honey-brown eyes fixed on her. “I didn’t even think I believed in fate until you knocked me down in that alleyway. But don’t you want to at least… find out?”</p><p>Her heart is racing now. She wonders if she might faint. She’s never fainted before, wouldn’t know what it feels like, but surely this dizziness isn’t a good sign. “Find out what?” she asks breathlessly.</p><p>“If we… fit.” He laces his fingers together in front of him, demonstrating. “Maybe that’s the free will part. Getting to test it out. Getting to… try.”</p><p>“Kylo…” She doesn’t know what to say to this. She’s known this man under a week, and even though he’s fucked her in every position imaginable, she hardly knows anything about him. “This is a lot.”</p><p>“It is,” he agrees.</p><p>“You’re a wolf. I’m a coyote. Our kind don’t live together.”</p><p>“So we'll figure something out.” He shrugs. “The thrill’s kind of gone out of being pack Alpha, anyway, if I’m being honest. Once I killed Snoke, what was the point? It’s a shocking amount of paperwork and stopping everyone from being idiots.”</p><p>She chuckles despite herself. “Well, there’s no paperwork in my pack. Plenty of idiots, though.” At his hopeful look, she hurries to clarify. “Not that you’re invited. Not yet.”</p><p>He looks crestfallen, but nods. “That’s fair.”</p><p>“When it comes down to it,” she says, “I don’t know you, and you don’t know me.”</p><p>“I’d argue I know parts of you very well—”</p><p>“Those parts don’t matter,” she says, cutting him off. At his disbelieving look, she rolls her eyes. “All right, they matter, but they aren’t everything. You don’t have a clue who I am as a person.”</p><p>“I know you’re tough and smart and fearless,” he says, taking a step towards her. Rey’s fingers twitch, but she keeps her guns aimed down. “I know you take care of your pack and don’t hesitate to leap into danger to save them. That tells me you’re loyal, too. Loving.” He smiles, and it’s soft and tilted and like no other smile he’s given her yet. “That’s a good a start as any, don’t you think?”</p><p>Rey’s entire body feels like it’s vibrating with the need to go to him, to throw herself into his arms and ask him if he means it, if he really wants her the way he says he does. She can’t tell if it’s her or her inner Omega, though, and that worries her. “I don’t want to be someone’s subordinate for the rest of my life,” she says. “I don’t do submission well.”</p><p>He outright laughs at that. “You think I don’t know that? You’re an absolute firecracker, Rey. You’ve had me convinced for the last ten minutes that you’re about to blow my balls off.”</p><p>“It wouldn’t be your balls,” Rey says. “I usually aim for the heart. When I’m getting fancy, right between the eyes.”</p><p>“See?” He gestures down at his crotch, and Rey’s startled to see the material there starting to tent. “Clearly I like that. So no, I’m not looking for someone to submit to my every whim. Just some of them.”</p><p>She glares at him. “Not likely.”</p><p>“<em>And,</em>” he says, ignoring her retort, “I’m looking to submit to someone else’s whims occasionally, too. It isn’t all one or the other.” He sighs. “That mated pair I saw long ago… they were like that. Always fighting, defying their designations in the oddest moments. And it worked for them, crazy as they were.”</p><p>She swallows hard. “Then why?” she whispers. This is the question that's been haunting her, whether she wants to admit it or not.</p><p>“Why what?”</p><p>“Why didn’t you bite me when I asked?” Her cheeks burn. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you didn’t, but I don’t know why you didn’t, if you’re so excited about this whole mate thing.”</p><p>“Because you didn’t want me to." He’s only a few feet away now—close enough that she might not get a shot off before he tackled her. “You told me you didn’t want it when you were still in your right mind, which means it didn’t matter what you said after that.”</p><p>Rey’s inhale sounds more like a sob. She didn’t know an Alpha would care about something like that. “Thank you,” she says. “I… I thought you didn’t want me.”</p><p>“Oh, I want you,” he says. “But biting you…” He shudders. “Tempting as it is, that’s putting the cart before the horse, don’t you think?”</p><p>She nods fervently. “Yes. Definitely yes.”</p><p>He smiles, and his eyes crinkle in the nicest way. “We’ve got a lot of talking we need to do, little thief. This is a complicated proposition.”</p><p>“It is.”</p><p>“Do you know when would be an excellent time to talk?” There’s a hint of mischief now in his smile, in his voice.</p><p>Rey’s utterly captivated. “Aren’t we talking right now?” she asks. Her gaze is drawn to his lips, which are as full and pink and pretty as she remembers. Another flash of memory reminds her what it felt like to have them pressed against her cunt.</p><p>“We are,” he acknowledges. “But I think there would be plenty of time to get to know each other on the road to La Montaña de Oro… don’t you?”</p><p>In response, Rey holsters her guns…</p><p>...and throws herself into his arms.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Soooo I was going to draw the angst out and have Rey steal the map and ride off alone, but the conversation just kind of went this way, so now these idiots are on a road trip. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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